COVID NSW: Barilaro slams Sydney wedding venue for breaking COVID guest restrictions
A beautician and the operator of an audacious Sydney wedding venue were slammed for major health breaches as the state’s COVID status hung in the balance.
NSW
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A beautician and the operator of an audacious Sydney wedding venue were slammed by police and the state government on Monday for major health breaches as the state’s COVID status hung in the balance.
Cronulla beauty therapist Jess Barca, 27, was notified in Byron Bay on New Year’s Eve she was a close contact of a known case and needed to isolate and get tested.
Police returned to her resort to check on her the next day and fined her $1000 when they found she was not isolating.
On January 3, police checked again and claim they found Ms Barca swimming in the resort pool, fining her a second time.
Asked by Seven News if she felt she had endangered public safety Ms Barca said: “No, I’m a double negative result.”
NSW Police Acting Commissioner Mal Lanyon said: “That obviously puts the rest of the public and herself in significant danger.”
Acting Premier John Barilaro said it was “bloody wrong” for Imperial Paradiso in Fairfield to pack double the permitted crowd into a wedding reception on Saturday night. Police were tipped off on Saturday that the venue was full beyond its 350-person limit under COVID restrictions. They arrived at 9.30pm to find between 600 and 700 people at the wedding and told the organiser to kick hundreds of them out.
On Sunday, 46-year-old Khiri Gorgees, who is a shareholder of the huge seven-venue Paradiso Receptions business, attended Fairfield Police Station where he was handed a $5000 fine.
Mr Barilaro was questioned over the size of the fine on Monday, given the revenue possible from a 700-guest wedding. He said it was “something we have to consider”.
“But I tell you what – we’ll come down hard on those who choose to be deliberate as we saw in that example,” he said. “He puts his own business and reputation … at risk, the sector at risk, the broader economy and jobs, and worse the health of this state.”
Paradiso Receptions did not respond to requests for comment.
The company’s director, Steve Naamo, told the ABC in August it was not worth opening his family run business of 30 years when the limit on guests was 150.
“It’s not feasible … the actual cost of the operation isn’t doable when there’s a 150 cap for these big venues,” he said. “Customers don’t want to cut down their guest list by 75 per cent then have to pay a tonne more per head.”
A video uploaded to Snapchat appears to show a Fairfield police officer walking through the venue, watched cautiously by seated guests.
Two other people were fined $1000 for leaving their Northern Beaches homes for a holiday on the north coast. The couple from Collaroy were spoken to by police in Yamba on Saturday and were fined when they did not have a “lawful excuse for leaving their home”.
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